By The Associated Press

                      MIAMI - A convicted drug dealer who escaped from federal prison pleaded guilty Thursday in plots to
                      smuggle 10 Cubans to Florida and hold one of them for ransom.

                      Eight Cubans who left by boat last July were close relatives of three Cuban nationals who organized
                      the trip, but the other two agreed to pay for their passage after arriving, prosecutors said.

                      Eliecer Lara Salado admitted two conspiracy counts. But the plea agreement nearly fell apart when he
                      disputed holding Rogelio Garcia against his will even though Garcia's relatives told police that they had
                      been ordered to pay $8,000 for his release.

                      ''Garcia will never say that he was detained,'' defense attorney Ana Jhones said. ``At no time was Mr.
                      Garcia deprived of contact with family members.''

                      After a recess to decide whether Lara would follow through with the guilty plea, Jhones acknowledged
                      Lara ``was aware that these negotiations were going on for the exchange of money.''

                      Lara, 38, is the last of the three men involved in the smuggling trip to settle his case with a plea
                      agreement. Ramon Rodriguez, who was sentenced with Lara in the same 1997 cocaine case, and Alexis
                      Gonzalez Hernandez pleaded guilty earlier.

                      Gonzalez and Rodriguez sailed to Cuba but dropped the Cuban group on the Bahamian island of
                      Anguilla Cay when their boat developed mechanical trouble, prosecutor Jerold McMillen said in
                      describing the evidence for the judge.

                      The Coast Guard later intercepted the disabled boat as it headed for Florida, towed it to Islamorada in
                      the Florida Keys and noticed that the boat's global positioning system indicated travel to Cuba.

                      Gonzalez was freed when he showed papers proving he was a permanent U.S. resident. Rodriguez,
                      who also had escaped while serving his drug sentence, was detained after giving an alias.

                      Gonzalez returned to Anguilla Cay and took all 10 Cubans to the Florida Keys last July 14. Garcia was
                      taken with the other Cuban man who promised payment to a house in south Miami-Dade County.

                      Gonzalez contacted Garcia's brothers in Clewiston and told them that he would be held until payment
                      was made or he would be returned to Cuba, McMillen said.

                      The relatives went to Clewiston police instead of paying. A special FBI kidnapping team organized a
                      task force to find Garcia, who was free 19 hours after the first call to police.

                      Lara drove Garcia to a meeting in Homestead with an undercover immigration agent posing as an
                      affluent relative and was arrested along with Gonzalez on July 16.

                      The eight Cuban relations staged a landing on Duck Key the next day to make it look as if they were
                      just arriving, McMillen said.

                      Lara already has been sentenced to a year in prison for escaping from the federal prison in Jesup, Ga.,
                      while serving his drug sentence of nearly seven years.

                      He could face a possible life sentence under the hostage-taking conspiracy count, but the government
                      doesn't plan to seek it.

                      U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore must decide at sentencing June 21 whether Lara's sentence in the
                      alien-smuggling case adds to his existing sentences.